Built for Ceramicists,
Not Spreadsheets.
ClayCalc is a free platform of ceramic engineering calculators — designed to replace the guesswork, the sticky notes, and the worn-out books with reliable, instant answers.
Why Potters & Ceramic Engineers Use ClayCalc
Every ceramicist has stood at the wedging table with a calculator app open in one hand and a dog-eared glaze chemistry book in the other. The formulas exist — Brongniart, Seger, Orton — but applying them correctly, every time, without errors, is the slow part.
ClayCalc was built to solve exactly that. Not as a novelty, but as a serious reference tool: one place where every calculation a working potter or ceramic engineer might need lives in a clean, verified, instantly usable form.
Everything on this platform is free. No login, no paywall, no subscription. The calculators run entirely in the browser — your measurements never leave your device.
Scientific Accuracy First
Every calculator on ClayCalc is built from a named, verifiable formula. We do not guess. The shrinkage calculator follows the standard wet-to-fired ratio. The glaze COE calculator uses the established oxide expansion coefficients. The cone temperature conversions reference published Orton data.
Where a formula requires empirical correction — such as the form-factor coefficients in the clay weight estimator, or the wall-thickness modifier in the drying time predictor — we document what those corrections are and why they exist. Studio ceramics involves real-world variation that pure physics cannot predict, and we are transparent about where engineering judgement enters the calculation.
Results are presented with appropriate precision. We do not report firing temperatures to five decimal places. We do not report shrinkage to the nearest 0.001%. Ceramics is not that kind of science, and false precision creates false confidence.
How It Works
Find Your Calculator
Browse by category or use the index to find the right tool for your task — shrinkage, glaze batch, firing cost, slip casting, and more.
Enter Your Values
Input your measurements in metric or imperial. Every field has a label, unit, and sensible default so you know exactly what to enter.
Get Your Result
Instant, accurate results with units, explanations, and guidance on how to apply the answer at your wheel or kiln.
Who Uses These Pottery & Ceramic Calculators
ClayCalc is used by ceramicists at every level:
- pottery Studio potters — calculating shrinkage for fitted lids, or costing out their production runs.
- school Ceramics students — learning glaze chemistry and firing science with a tool that shows the working, not just the answer.
- factory Industrial ceramicists — verifying calculations for slip casting, plaster mold design, and batch formulation.
- palette Hobbyists — who just want to know how much clay to buy for a set of mugs, or whether their kiln firing will fit the budget.
Calculator Categories
Our Philosophy
- check_circle Free and open — no account, no subscription, no limit.
- check_circle Formulas are cited and verifiable — not black boxes.
- check_circle Results are honest about precision and uncertainty.
- check_circle Every tool works on mobile, from the studio, at the wheel.
Found an Error?
If a formula produces a result that doesn't match your real-world measurements, we want to know. Accuracy is the whole point.